ARCHIVED - 20 year old trainee pilot and her instructor killed in Mar Menor plane crash

This is the second tragedy affecting the San Javier Air Academy in three weeks

Photographer: Rob Grace Photography

The Minister of Defence has confirmed that the crash was due to engine failure.

Just after 12 midday on Wednesday a 20 year old trainee air force pilot and her 50 year old instructor from the San Javier Air Academy in Santiago de la Ribera were killed when their T.35 Pillán trainer plane crashed into the Mar Menor shortly after take-off.

The plane involved this time was a T.35 Pillán, known popularly as the “Tamiz”, a model used in basic training at the academy, and first came into service in 1987, which plunged into the sea near Santiago de la Ribera, around 200 metres from the beach.

Defence Minister Margarita Robles, who was visiting the air base of El Goloso in Madrid at the time of the accident, confirmed that the cause of the accident was engine failure after the plane took off.

The plane had recently been the subject of a manual servicing procedure and had been tested yesterday following this revision. The plane had also been checked mechanically this morning before the instructor and his student took off from the Air Academy.

Eyewitnesses report that the plane plunged directly into the water without making any type of corrective movement, coming to a stop in the midst of a number of moored boats. The water in this area is only around two metres deep and the tail of the aircraft is still visible, with the bulk of the plane submerged in the water 200 metres from the shore.

Beaches have been closed to bathers in Santiago de la Ribera as the plane is recovered and the area sealed off by investigators.

The bodies were removed shortly after the incident by military divers.

Witnessing the search and rescue mission was Fernando López Miras, the president of the regional government of Murcia, who hurried to the scene from San Pedro del Pinatar, where he was inspecting the damaged caused by the destructive gota fría storm which hit south-eastern Spain between 12th and 15th September. The Mayor of San Javier, José Miguel Luengo, also arrived at the scene rapidly and joined the hundreds on social media in sending his profound condolences to the families of the deceased.

The Minister confirmed that she had personally spoken to the families of the deceased to inform them about the accident and had also spoken to King Felipe VI, who himself is a former student of the Air Academy, as was his father, King Juan Carlos.

The T.35 Pillán is a Chilean design which replaced the Beechcraft T-34 Mentor, and is a highly modified version of the Piper Aztec for military use. It measures 7.97 metres in length and is 2.34 metres high and was brought into use in Spain in 1987.

41 construction kits were assembled at the CASA factory in Getafe (Madrid) and sold to the air force to replace the previous Bücker and Mentor training aircraft and have been used at the Academia General del Aire ever since. The top speed of the plane is 311 km/h.

A full investigation will now follow once the plane has been recovered.